[pupito]

Please help me with info on filing taxes and tax return.

I came to the US on Aug 2011 as a student on F1 visa, my wife came with me as F2.
After graduation in May 2012 I started working on OPT until October 1st when my H1B kicked in and my wife is H4 (she doesn't have SSN or ITIN yet).
Also we had a baby born in the US in October 2012 (so he has SSN and everything).
We had no foreign income.

I was wondering how to file and the return I should expect to get if my gross income for the year was ~35k

Also any recommendations for professionals that help file taxes would be appreciated.

Thanks a lot.

Julian

[AtlantaTaxExpert]

Julian,

What is your home country?

[pupito]

Thanks for the fast reply. I'm from Mexico, so is my wife.

[AtlantaTaxExpert]

It is likely you will get a refund, because you will qualify for the $1,000 Child Tax Credit.

Your wife needs to apply for an ITIN by submitting Form W-7 with the tax return. That process has undergone some radical procedural changes this past year.  Instead of the simple notarization process, the IRS now requires that your home country certify the photocopy of your passport as a true copy.  This is due to rampant fraud in the ITIN submission process.  The notaries simply cannot tell the difference between a fake passport and the genuine passport.

This certification can be done by the Mexican embassy in Washington, D.C. or at one of the consulates.  Assuming you do NOT want to drive there, you need to call the nearest consulate and arrange to have this process done via the mail.  Since you must wait until June to file, you have time to get this done (the process, done via mail, can take up to three months to complete).

The alternative is to mail in the actual passports themselves, something most of my clients are reluctant to do.

If you need professional help doing this, email me at the email address in my profile if you cannot see the address below.

[pupito]

Thanks again for your help, I'll start by getting the passport stuff. Do you know if an apostille copy of the passport would work?

Thanks

[AtlantaTaxExpert]

Yes, the apostille SHOULD work if the apostille is part of the photocopy.